17852/When A Snickers Isn't Enough

When A Snickers Isn't Enough
Date of Scene:	07 May 2024
Location:	Midtown
Synopsis:	Venom's ravenous gorging at a New York City chocolate shop is interrupted by Ghost Spider. Finding a potential new source of sating his hunger, Venom pursues Ghost Spider through the Big Apple. The pursuit of predator against prey ends when the prey turns out to have tricks of its own. A brief clash ends in Venom escaping into the NYC sewer system.
Cast of Characters:	Eddie Brock, Gwen Stacy

---

Eddie Brock has posed:
Chocolate eggs, chocolate coins, chocolate bars, chocolate wedges, nut covered chocolate, chocolate covered caramels. Dark chocolate, white chocolate, milk chocolate, ruby chocolate and more. Chocolate. Chocolate. CHOCOLATE. CHOC-O-LATE.

The quaint chocolate shop in Midtown West has long been a beloved location in the area and today it's developed a new fan. A big, big fan.

Shortly aftern ten in the morning, pedestrians of all walks of life scatter from the shopfront of Myzel's Chocolates. Shouts of alarm, shrieks of fear, screams of panic, and other sounds join the sound of what some may describe as a metaphorical bull in a china shop. The sound of glass shattering erupts from the small storefront, along with the wet smacking of a saliva-dripping mouth that's greedily pouring and thrusting handfuls of sweet dreams into his toothy maw. The prehensile tongue of the inky black creature lashes out to aid in the process, collecting a jar of dark chocolate from a nearby shelf behind the countertop.

It's a small interior, which means that the monstrous creature fills a good deal of it. He's been forced to stoop down, reducing his usual height on account of the slouch that he must adopt to move comfortably within the shop. The sound of his wicked claws against glass can be heard among the sounds of ravenous, gluttonous ingestion of every chocolatey treat that the hellish monstrosity can get its deadly hands upon.

For the moment all that occupies the interior of the cramped shop is the monster known as Venom and an entire hoard worth of chocolate. Judging by the almost obscene sounds of rapacious hunger and slobbering delight, the symbiote has found its own little slice of paradise.

Unfortunately, like most lifeforms: it's going to guard its resources jealously. Which is evidenced by the sialoquent snarls that it directs toward the doorway and those few panicked individuals that dart past it in their bid to escape the area.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
It's no secret to those that know Gwen that she has a sweet tooth, often turned towards icecream but in a pinch? Chocolate works. So it's a touch of surprise that during her swings across Manhattan as Ghost Spider that she finds her FAVORITE chocolate shop being assaulted. Or rather, she -feels- it in her spider senses, the dread of fear of people running. The danger. This is no simple robbery.

A web is silent *THWIPED* across a building, Ghost Spider swinging across the distance as her elegant lithe body stretches before she lands against the wall of the chocolate place. She can hear the screams. The devouring. Is anyone being attacked inside? She quickly drops down to the ground, ballerina shoes touching the ground quietly and she slides in, right in time to get one of the shopkeepers run past her, screaming out, "HELP, IT WONT STOP EATING!" then running.

Ghost Spider watches him run a moment before peeking in closer, over a stall to spot....

"Venom?"

Eddie Brock has posed:
The screams had become background noise amidst Venom's ravenous consumption. The single word spoken results in the symbiote whirling about to face the source of the sound. Chocolates held go scattering and the monstrous being's hands splay, likely with the intent of showcasing the wicked claws that cap each of its large fingers. He advances a step, smooshing dropped chocolate candies underfoot as the inky black creature seemingly spewed from Hell itself begins to advance toward the voice and the presence of Ghost Spider.

Today there is no hitch in Venom's step or delay in his actions. If there is someone else in control? If there is someone else behind the wheel of the freight train that is Venom? They don't seem to be paying attention to stop it.

Venom lunges, springing from the interior of the building and toward the doorway. He leads the way with clawed hands, seeking to both tackle and grapple Ghost Spider as the monster leaps at her direction with spittle spraying and his whipping tongue lashing, attempting to grapple his potential prey as much as his hands may.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
Venom turns his head to her and of course that Ghost Spider does what she does best. Quipping in the face of absolute danger. "Put the chocolate down carefully and get your hands up--" yet whatever else that she was going to say is lost in translation when Venom just rushes at her without preamble, the eyes on her mask widening in surprise.

The surprise, and quick rush, has Gwen react a split of a second later which means that the straightforward run nearly catches her, those claws brushing over the fabric of that tight white outfit (yes, a Van Dyne's!) before she is backflipping out of the store, weaving over and around the larger man, full use of her spider-senses being made to have her be the kind of small spider that's hard to pinpoint and catch. Such a nuisance!

"I know chocolate is a straight path to a girl's heart..!" She rolls out of a near tackle, jumping up to the air and tossing a web to get her airborne, "..., though what about dinner first?!" she casting a look over her shoulder to see if Venom is still coming after her.

Yes, she can't help it in continuing the quips. But that's what she does when she's nervous.

Eddie Brock has posed:
"The chocolate is ours!" Venom practically roars as his leaping lunge toward Ghost Spider results in little more than empty air and a close shave for the young superheroine. The sound of Venom's claws on pavement grinds into their surroundings as he twists midway through his leap. The claws dig into pavement like butter, halting his momentum and forcing him into a grinding stop. Freed from the cramped coffee shop and now within the open-air streets of New York City, Venom is capable of standing at his full height. While normally a large creature, it seems that the symbiote has adopted an even taller form. Towering at over seven and a half feet tall, the creature's tongue lashes the air as he watches Ghost Spider leap into the air and the strand of webbing that carries her aloft.

A running start sends Venom leaping into the air as a his own arm extends, a thick tendril of inky black symbiote splaying across the surface near Gwen's own with a stick *SPLCHT* as the symbiote's appendage adheres to the surface and his leap sends him airborne, twisting through the air after Gwen.

"Come back, little spider! We only want a nibble!" the wet words of Venom are practically spat out as he begins the pursuit of his prey. All the while not realizing that he's being lead away from not only the area, but his hoard of newly won chocolate, by the ghostly spider.

SPLCHT! SPLCHT! The sound of the symbiote's tentacle-like appendages adhering to one surface after another sounds off as the hellish creature pursues the high-flying spider through the canyons of the New York cityscape.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
This isn't Ghost Spider's first rodeo with Venom. In fact she has faced off against him a few times in the past already with mixed results, her greatest win having been driving Venom right into a billboard to stop him from eating some gang members. Today though? Things -felt- different. More visceral. And is Venom even larger than the usual? Whatever is going on doesn't feel normal. Or at least as much normal as one can call being pursued by a symbiote half across town.

But such is the life of Gwen Stacy.

The thick tendril landing near her own web means Venom is in hot pursuit, further and further away from the shop. Good, it will give the innocents time to get away. Of course that now Ghost Spider has a -tiny- little problem of her own by way of that large villain coming after her as if she was some piece of chocolate, "I didn't know you were an appreciator of white chocolate!" she replies to Venom over her shoulder, the white-clad Spider twisting in the air as she dodges a tentacle out of Venom that goes too close to comfort, yet the further they travel through the buildings the more familiar it becomes for Ghost Spider. This is her city after all, and she knows it's streets better than most.

Another twist and after a tight turn she leads them towards an alley. A rather tight alley where someone a bit too large may have more difficulty swinging through the air easily.

"How about I buy you a nice chocolate box? Maybe two!" She offers, chest already burning at the exertion of the pursuit through the city.

Eddie Brock has posed:
One after another, Venom's appendages slap against the face of buildings and overhangs. Despite his monstrous size, he moves dexterously and ably through the city's canyons. Whether narrow or wide, he adapts to his pursuit. When swinging bodily through the air in chase of the Ghost Spider, Venom's deadly claws dig into concrete and steel alike in order to send him lunging bodily along the side of a building or around a tight corner amid his predator's chase.

"We are so hungry!" Venom roars out, his tongue lashing the air as though that simple act could allow him to practically taste the trail of Ghost Spider and permit him to keep up with her escape. Or the trap that she's in the midst of weaving.

At one point amid their game of cat and mouse - or Venom and Spider - Venom swings close enough that the faint graze of his talons can be felt against the back of Gwen's hood. The smaller, more agile Spider is able to create distance and pull away from the symbiote following his attempt at plucking her from her web and the air itself.

A snarl of frustration escapes the symbiote as the white of his apparent eyes seems to shift into narrow lines as though in some symbiote's expression of a frown or angry scowl. They snap back into position however as the inky black brute redoubles his efforts amid his pursuit.

Through the city the pair go, evading and eluding law enforcement by nothing more than the sheer speed of their rapid movement across the city; conventional means of travel simply can't keep up with a Spider and symbiote dynamically traversing the Big Apple.

While Venom may be the predator pursuing its prey; the Ghost Spider is hardly any sort of normal prey. A spider armed with guile is still a predator in its own right and the likelihood of that clever arachnid leading the symbiote into its own form of trap is quite high.

Something that the more ravenous symbiote has likely overlooked or left unconsidered on account of its ravenous pursuit.

"We! Are! Hungry!" he spats out each word with a mingling of desperation and frustration as Ghost Spider swings herself into the narrow alleyway. On account of his own size, Venom is forced to absorb his latest appendage back into his whole. He hurtles toward the narrow gap, but halts his advance as the symbiote bodily lands against the wall with the crumbling of concrete and the shattering of nearby glass. He clings to the wall much like a Spider would, but the symbiote doesn't pause for long. He scrambles and scrabbles, slipping around the corner of the building and into the alleyway proper in pursuit of Ghost Spider. Here the more lithe spider has the advantage compared to the bulk of Venom's present form. While he may still be deadly in his own right, he's hampered by the tight quarters more than the friendly neighborhood Ghost Spider.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
Any hopes that the police would have of catching up with the two powered beings quickly fades as they move past neighborhoods to other parts of Manhattan completely. All they can really follow is the trail of destruction left in their wake, the debris from Venom's passage that falls down on the streets making cars honk in complaint. Hopefully they have supervillain insurance for their cars. But one would need to be a fool to not get it in Manhattan.

Not that Gwen is thinking on the destruction being wrought around her. She is in fact trying to not become the latest gourmet choice for Venom no matter how close he is getting to catching up but she stubbornly just stays ahead, almost as if she was living one second in the future, knowing where she needs to be so as to not be hit.

Grazing claws brush on the back of her hood, enough to tear it lightly. Enough that wisps of blond hair is seen underneath. A few more webs are shot. But what is she shooting at? Venom is able to evade those easily even as she fills part of that tight alley a bit more before turning and continuing, leading Venom on a merry-go-round on the neighborhood. More webs are shot but they seem a bit random. All until they are back onto that same alley of before.

And again.

And the more they go around the more filled up the place is. All until it is a giant web with just a small hole in the center. A hole sized exactly for Gwen that goes feet first through it before covering it, "Dodge this!" she exclaims.

Suddenly in front of Venom it's all white webbing. Ready to stop the big menace! But will it hold?

Eddie Brock has posed:
Round and round they go, where they'll stop? No one knows. Save for Ghost Spider. After multiple merry meanderings throughout the neighborhood, Venom's adapted himself - albeit ever so slightly - to the dimensions of the narrow alleyway. As Gwen disappears around the corner with a sharp turn upon her own webbing, Venom seeks to follow. This time it is upon a strand of the symbiote's own form. The form of Venom is as malleable as ever. As he passes into that narrow alleyway, his form reduces. No longer does he tower in a far more immense size than normal. While still hulking and brutish, he's at least constricted his sheer size down to something more approaching his usual size and bulk. Hardly lithe or slim on the best of days, the brute does at least slide into that narrow alleyway with greater ease than before.

What isn't expected is the streamers of webbing that form a dizzying array of hurdles and barriers across the alleyway. They are so numerous and so voluminous within the narrow space that the momentum of Venom's swing carries him directly into their path. While tendrils of symbiote suddenly spring out in many directions and cling at the alleyway walls to either side in some desperate bid to act as emergency brakes for the alien; Venom's pursuit is not halted in time. While Venom shears through some of the webbing like a knife through butter, as his momentum slows with every inch that he travels it doesn't take long for the monster to begin falling into the trap in earnest.

Venom twists in a desperate attempt to drop his bulk toward the alley below and land upon the ground; he never makes it that far. Becoming more and more entangled in the webbing, the black-and-white symbiote snarls and roars out in frustration. His tongue lashes at the air, as though hoping to grapple at something, anything. Talons rake and claw, shredding webbing that slows, but has yet to truly bind him.

It's an opening for an attack or a canny plan. As distracted as Venom has become with shredding and tearing at the webbing attempting to bundle him up, the symbiote has hardly the attention to invest toward defending himself. For the moment.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
Success! Or at least a partial one. But beggars can't be choosers so Gwen takes the small victories as they come, those webbings enough to deter Venom for a few seconds. Just enough for her to shoot a few more webs to reinforce the others. It helps having studied engineering and knowing all about structural integrity. Can her webs hold? She will take this as an ultimate stress test for them.

Claws and bulk tear and press at her webs, breaking some as she shoots more to attempt to stem the 'bleeding' happening. What is her goal here though? Tire him out? It's the plan she can do at the moment. Maybe he will tire out and stop struggling to then leave. Or maybe her webs will be enough to capture him and they can finally imprison Venom! Now wouldn't that be something? Gwen would never let Peter live it down though, as being the one to take down Venom.

"Time to turn you into a wrapped-up Ferrero Rocher." she tells the big guy, flipping and weaving above and around Venom as she continues shooting those webs. She's such a nuisance. And is she comparing him to a chocolate now? That'd infuriate just anyone!

Eddie Brock has posed:
While some of the webbing holds; not all of it does. While Venom may be slowed, in that moment he seems as inexorable a force as the sun rising and setting from one day into the next. He keeps advancing. The tendrils of inky darkness that cling to the walls on either side of the alley keep him moving, albeit slowly. A snarl of frustration erupts from the symbiote as Ghost Spider whips nimbly around him.

Becoming more and more tangled within the webbing, Venom adopts a new tactic. He arrests his movement abruptly and without warning. He simply stops, which in turn stops any further binding webbing from wrapping about his frame. Talons slash, claws rend. Some of the webbing is left as little more than streamers tethered to the roiling surface of his body.

Amid is rending and slashing, a group of tentacles sprout from the form of the symbiote and lash at the air around him. They whip and wave, forcing Ghost Spider to weave in and among them as she attempts to weave a web around the monstrosity.

One of those symbiote tentacles makes contact with Gwen and the moment that touch is felt, Venom's form flexes against that momentary graze of touch. The goal is little more than to snatch the Ghost Spider from her pestering whirl around Venom as he begins to twist, gaining more and more of his own flexibility as the Spider's webbing is sheared away.

A hiss of delight erupts from the symbiote as his appendages retract. His weight drops and with him goes Ghost Spider as the pair drop toward the alley floor. The crunch of concrete beneath Venom's mass can be heard as he reaches out to pluck the Spider from the grip of the tentacle that has wrapped around her torso. He attempts to grapple her in one massive, clawed hand while his jaw distends and his lashing tongue slashes the air before the Spider. There's a hunger there that hasn't been seen since the early days of Venom's arrival.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
It only takes a moment of distraction for Gwen's house of cards to come crumbling down, Venom's victorious roar heralding the apparent defeat of the Ghost Spider when that tentacle lashes around her torso and pins her down. And for all her enhanced strength she is unable fend off against Venom's superior strength, the claw confirming her defeat and keeping her down. Is this the end? Being eaten alive?

No quip comes now at the dawn of this realization that she may indeed -die-, fear coming to her features under that mask. Hands struggle, hitting at the tentacle as it to try to pry herself off even if to no avail. Tongue lashes out, close. A palpable hunger on Venom's alien features.

*Think, Gwen. Think*

From the corner of her eye she glimpses a large garbage can. Then another on the other side. Maybe she can yank them and hit Venom with them. A last ditch effort. Webs shoot off to catch the two cans at the same time and she pulls. A bit wobbly due to how hard her slender torso is being crushed under that tentacle. It makes it so that instead of Venom being hit the two cans hit together. Once, twice. Reverberating as she frantically tries to bring them over even if instead it creates a rhythm of a sort that may create disturbance on Venom's heightened senses.

Eddie Brock has posed:
The maw distends and the tongue lashes. The angle of his jaw causes his rows of teeth to angle toward the Ghost Spider. There's a quiver to the symbiote as though the pure, unmitigated excitement of the meal to come is enough to make it giddy. The tentacle squeezes tighter and a second moves to join it, further restricting the movement of his prey. Prey that had up to this point exhibited a particular cunning. Prey whose brain would make for a most delicious meal. Along with whatever other organs of note that the symbiote would relish.

He seeks to angle the hooded head of the heroine into his maw and in those last moments the Ghost Spider moves, spreading her arms out and her webbing spits out to adhere to those pair of dumpsters. As she wrenches them from either side of the alley and toward Venom, his own precognitive sense of danger results in the symbiote lowering itself abruptly and releasing Gwen to accomplish it.

Overhead the dumpsters collide and the booming ring of the two steel containers colliding with momentum behind them sends a chilling gong throughout the tight confines of the alleyway. The ringing of that metaphorical bell echoes back and forth, from one alley wall to the next. Back and forth, rebounding with its loud, excruciating sound.

"Gg-rrawwwhhh!!!"

The symbiote roars out in agony as his form seems like it's suddenly incapable of maintaining itself. The inky flesh of the symbiote wrinkles and curdles, puckers and spreads all across its surface. Beneath the glimpse of an arm - a human arm - can be seen, but it remains unmoving and inert beyond that simple glimpse. Again Venom attempts to pull himself together, but the echoing chime of the dumpster's collision seems to rattle him over and over and over.

An appendage explodes from Venom's chest. Like a battering ram it seeks to send Ghost Spider flying back and away from him like a rather violent shove intended to create space - and safety - for the Klyntar. He shudders and trembles as he takes his next few heavy, stomping steps. The manhole cover squeals - which only seems to further enrage and impair the symbiote with another roaring howl of pain and discomfort.

The manhole cover is hurled away, embedding itself into one of the concrete walls lining the alleyway with the boom of impact echoing throughout the alleyway. Venom wastes no time slithering down and forward, practically dropping into the manhole as the monstrosity disappears underground and into the sewers. A place of darkness and claustrophobia. A place where hunting Venom would bring all manner of new terrors.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
The sudden release of her torso when Venom pushes himself away has Gwen taking a sharp intake of air, lungs aching with the pain of that tight squeeze. It's a good thing that her spider powers give her such an enhanced stamina and durability or else she'd be a crumple on the ground already. But now? She still has a Venom to beat. And the way to do so comes to mind instantly when she notes how he seems to get in pain when those cans meet. Sound affects him?

Or maybe it's a specific type of sound.

Regardless, she hits the cans again. And again, making them reverberate. It's working! Maybe she will finally win and---

The appendage hits her squarely in the chest, sending her flying back and against a hard brick wall. Breath escapes her lungs again and she falls on the ground, stunned. It's enough time for Venom to slink away through the sewer, Gwen finally coming back up to her feet slowly. Her whole body hurts now and Venom was gone.

Steps bring her closer to the sewer entrance. Darkness. She could finally take down Venom. But what would the price be?

And would she be willing to pay that price?